We count not worth the hanging—but none human.”
and is reminded that she would “from this practice but make hard her heart.” Such a rebuke is in keeping with the true feeling which inspired the poet to picture the undeserved pangs of the hunted Deer in As You Like It, ii., 1.
[126] Advancement of Learning. viii., 2.
[127] See Acetaria (page 170). By John Evelyn.
[128] The tract of Samuel Hartlib, entitled, A Design for Plenty, by a Universal Planting of Fruit Trees, which appeared during the Commonwealth Government, no doubt suggested to Evelyn his kindred publication. Hartlib (of a distinguished German family) settled in this country somewhere about the year 1630. By his writings, in advocacy of better agriculture and horticulture, he has deserved a grateful commemoration from after-times. Cromwell gave him a pension of £300, which was taken away by Charles II., and he died in poverty and neglect. It was to him Milton dedicated his Tractate on Education.
[129] Locke (one of the very highest names in Philosophy) had already exhorted English mothers to make their children abstain “wholly from flesh,” at least until the completion of the fourth or fifth year. He strongly recommends a very sparing amount of flesh for after years; and thinks that many maladies may be traceable to the foolish indulgence of mothers in respect to diet.—See Thoughts on Education, 1690.
[130] He quotes, amongst others, Tertullian De Jejuniis (On Fasting), cap. iv.; Jerome (Adv. Jovin); Clemens of Alexandria (Strom. vii.); Eusebius, Preparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel), who cites several abstinents from amongst the philosophers of the old theologies.
[131] Acetaria (“A Discourse of Salads”). Dedicated to Lord Somers, of Evesham, Lord High Chancellor of England, and President of the Royal Society, London, 1699.
[132] Translated by Cowper from the Latin poems of Milton. In a note to the original poem Thomas Warton justly remarks that “Milton’s panegyrics on temperance both in eating and in drinking, resulting from his own practice, are frequent.”
[133] Paradise Lost, v. and xi. Cf. Queen Mab.